Mechanical and magnetic hysteresis as indicators of the origin and inception of fatigue damage in steel

N2 and N3 are known as the transition points of the three principal stages of fatigue: initial accommodation, accretion of damage and terminal fatigue. Many experiments show that the ratios of N2/Nf and N3/Nf tend to be stable even though the specific N2 and N3 values may fluctuate widely. The primary goal of this research is to study the piezomagnetic field surrounding AISI 1018 steel specimen under repeated loads and to find the ratio values of N2/Nf and N3/Nf by analyzing 11 sets of low-cycle fatigue data. An MTS-810 testing system with a peak capacity of 222 kN was used to obtain the data which consisted of stress, strain, and piezomagnetic field. A computer program was constructed to track the evolution of the piezomagnetic field and regression analysis was carried out to determine N2 and N3 values. It was observed that there exists a consistent relationship between N2 and Nf. The apparent invariance of the ratio N2/Nf implies that N2 may be identified as an index of performance in the early loading response of a specimen that forecasts its fatigue life, Nf. It has been demonstrated that measurements of the magnetic and mechanical hysteresis can yield significant insights into the various stages of the development of a fatigue critical microstructure which culminates in complete rupture of the material.